Federal Territories Minister Khalid Abdul Samad believe that it is not practical to cancel the controversial development involving Taman Rimba Kiara, reported The Star.

“Some people are of the opinion that the project is illegal and should be cancelled and we should pay off the developer (compensation) and get the land back,” he said.

Doing so, however, would mean that all the other projects in Kuala Lumpur which contravene the KL Local Plan should be cancelled as well, noted Khalid.

“If we cancel the Taman Rimba Kiara project, that alone will entail a minimum payment of at least RM200 million… If I were to cancel 10 projects that are in contravention of the KL Local Plan, then that would come to RM2 billion.”

Khalid explained the best he could do is to ask the developer to scale down the project.

“Let’s say if the developers refuse to accept the offer and sue us instead for loss in profit, which can come up to billions. So I cannot do that (cancel projects), I have a responsibility too,” he said.

“We can discuss to reduce or scale down the project where we will get some benefit and don’t have to pay out crazy amounts…While we haven’t had any discussions with the joint committee yet, I still want to discuss with the developer to scale down the project,” added Khalid.

Segambut MP Hannah Yeoh has proposed to form a joint working committee to resolve the issue during a town hall session last week.

Khalid hopes TTDI residents will come with open mind when they sit in the committee.

“I hope they will be open to discussions and not be stubborn about wanting me to cancel the project,” he said.

TTDI residents had objected in 2016 to a proposed mega project that will feature nine blocks of luxury serviced apartments and a block of 350 affordable housing units for Bukit Kiara longhouse residents.

The residents’ application for a judicial review to quash the conditional planning permission and development order issued by DBKL was denied by the High Court last year.